after her.
Brendan stood in the midst of the hushed, breathless throng. The reverberation of the bell overwhelmed all other sounds, cutting through the din of voices and instruments with insistent clarity. All who heard the bell turned their heads toward the source of the chime. A hush fell over the Gathering. Even the Lesser Faeries, normally prone to constant nattering, had fallen into a respectful silence. All stood (or fluttered, in the case of the Lesser Faeries) facing west toward the red wash of the sunset sky and the fiery orb of the sun hanging just above the frozen lake. Brendan held his breath. The bell continued to chime, and presently a procession approached.
They seemed to emerge out of the dying sun. Brendan was relieved to see a familiar face in front. His aunt Deirdre led the way, dressed in a shimmering silken gown of the purest white. In her hand she held a long pole. From the top of the pole dangled a bell that reflected the torchlight in its polished golden surface. As Deirdre walked into the Gathering place among the silent Faeries, she gently swung the pole so that the bell tolled with each step.
Ariel followed her. He was dressed in an exquisitely tailored suit sewn from golden cloth. His pale face and hair glowed softly, whether from the sun, the torchlight, or some inner illumination, Brendan couldn’t tell. He was the most senior of the Faeries in this part of the world, and so he was the host of the Gathering. The entire crowd ducked their heads in respectful greeting. Ariel raised a hand in response.
Behind Ariel, Pukh smirked at the crowd as if he were a king among peasants, mildly amused by their quaint behaviour and customs. Pukh had discarded the Armani suit in favour of a more traditional costume: a cloak encrusted with minute pearls and a plain white tunic with hose.
Walking behind him was a creature that made Brendan want to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. She looked as if she’d just stepped out of a Japanese anime cartoon. She wore what looked like a white sailor suit that had been splattered with green paint applied via shotgun blast. Her makeup was stark white with one black tear drawn at the corner of her right eye. Her hair was dyed a vibrant red and stood up like a cock’s comb. She was tiny in stature, almost childlike, and yet the look in her eyes was anything but innocent. The eyes in question were shaded by pink sunglasses. She was chewing a pink wad of bubble gum. The most bizarre aspect of her appearance had nothing to do with what she wore. A rich and glossy foxtail swished behind her as she walked.
“Kitsune Kai and her bodyguards,” Charlie whispered in his ear. He started. He’d forgotten she was there at his side.
Walking in attendance close behind Kitsune Kai was a pair of stout, dark-haired Japanese men. Their heads were oddly flat and the tops of their scalps glittered in the torchlight.
“What’s on their heads?” Brendan asked.
“They’re Kappa. They are tremendously strong. They wrestle their opponents to the ground and snap their limbs with powerful arms. However, they are vulnerable. They have to carry water from their home lake in a hollow at the top of their heads. If the water spills, they lose their strength and may even die.”
Brendan watched in silence as Kitsune Kai and her odd bodyguards came to a halt in the centre of the Faerground with Pukh and Deirdre.
The bell tolled one last time and fell silent. The crowd held its collective breath. Ariel stepped forward and raised his hands, the dying sun tinting his pale skin crimson.
The four Faeries formed a circle and raised their hands so that their palms faced downwards. They opened their mouths and sang out a single, achingly beautiful note. They sustained the chord and it grew in depth and power. Harmonics quivered in the air, making the sound more elaborate and complex. The air in the centre of their circle thickened and curdled into a glowing fog that seeped into the ground. The sound of their voices was joined by a deep rumbling.
The ground heaved and crumbled as a massive stone, a chunk of the island’s bedrock, emerged like the back of some long-buried, petrified beast. The stone rose, shedding crumbling earth, until it stood two metres high, a flat slab that could serve as a platform or stage.
The small circle of Faeries stopped singing and dropped their hands. The crowd cheered. Ariel stepped up onto the rock and addressed the assembly, calling for silence.
“O Mother Sun! On this the Solstice night, we beg you to return,” he cried. “The time is come to turn your face upon us once more.”
“Return!” the crowd exclaimed in response.
“Renew the Earth and bless the world with your power and warmth!”
“Return!”
“We await the kiss of spring, the spread of leaf, the burst of blossom!”
“Return!” Brendan shouted with the rest. He felt the magic of the incantation. He felt the tingle of power seeping into the cold ground beneath his feet. He felt the power of the promise of rebirth in the coming spring.
Ariel dropped his arms and swept his grey eyes back across the crowd. “Welcome all the Clans from near and far, Greater and Lesser, Silkies, Trolls, Kappa, and any others who gather to celebrate the death of the old year and the dawn of the new. All those who seek fellowship and kinship, we welcome you.”
He bowed his head and stepped back. This was Deirdre’s cue to hand the pole and the bell to Greenleaf, who stepped out of the throng to accept it. Another attendant handed Deirdre her harp with a deferential bow. Thus equipped, she stepped up onto the stone platform. She stood for a moment, her head bowed, lightly plucking the strings as though to confirm they were in tune. Satisfied, she raised her face, eyes closed, and strummed a chord.
The crowd sighed as one. Brendan felt his heart lift on the resonating sound of the harp. All at once, Deirdre’s fingers exploded in a flurry of movement. She was joined by instruments of every description played here and there throughout the gathered crowd. The sound was overwhelming, consuming. It drove deep inside Brendan, taking control of his body. He began to dance with abandon, flailing his limbs like a maniac. It felt good!
He was aware that others were dancing, spinning, and whirling around him. He paid no attention to individuals. A particle in a hurricane, a dust speck in a tornado, he lost himself in a gyre of pure joy. All his worries melted away. He was aware of only the pulse of the music and the beat of his heart.
The music swelled and sped up. He was a spinning top, a planet rotating, the slowly turning galaxy. Everything was moving like a giant clock, and he was a part of that vast timepiece, tiny but still important. He belonged.
Then the music stopped dead.
He staggered to a halt, streaming with sweat. All around him Faeries were panting and laughing, utterly spent. Lesser Faeries littered the ground like fallen leaves. Exhausted laughter wafted up from all over the Faerground as people caught their breath.
Brendan felt elated. It was as though all the tension in his body had been burned away. He looked around at the Faeries as they clasped hands and laughed, sharing the experience, and he felt joy at being a part of this world. There were good things in it if he let himself enjoy them. In this new state of mind he felt unafraid, even of the Proving, whatever that should turn out to entail. He felt happy.
He looked around to find Charlie to share the feeling but she was nowhere near. He cast his gaze wider. Where did she go? He spun around slowly, trying to pick her out of the crowd.
That’s when he saw Delia.
She was standing at the very edge of the Faerground in the shadow of a tent. The sun was down now so she was partially obscured by darkness, but there was no mistaking her blond hair. She was wearing the pink ski jacket she’d had on back at the house when she’d gone out. She wasn’t even trying to hide herself. Obviously, from the disbelieving look on her face, she’d been watching the ceremony. Hundreds of people in a dancing frenzy was probably a pretty weird thing to walk in on.
Any peace that had existed in Brendan’s soul was replaced with terror. What happened to Humans who walked in on Faerie rituals? He didn’t know but it couldn’t be good.^ 61
“That was amazing, wasn’t it?”
Brendan turned to find Kim beside him. She was flushed from dancing and her hair was dishevelled. In spite of his terror, some part of his mind was aware that she looked very beautiful. She was smiling brightly and her eyes danced. When she saw his eyes, however, her smile vanished.
“What’s wrong?”
“My sister’s here,” Brendan whispered.
